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Alexander II, King of Scots 1214 - 1249 book cover
Alexander II, King of Scots 1214 - 1249
2012
First Published
3.75
Average Rating
402
Number of Pages
Offering a fresh assessment of Alexander II’s contribution to the making of Scotland as a nation, this book explores the king’s successes and failures and lifts the focus from an introspective national history to look at the man and his kingdom in wider British and European history. It examines his international relationships and offers the first detailed analysis of the efforts to work out a lasting diplomatic solution to Anglo-Scottish conflict over his inherited claims to the northern counties of England. More than just a political narrative, the book also seeks to illuminate aspects of the king’s character and his relationships with those around him, especially his mother, his first wife Joan Plantagenet, and the great magnates, clerics, and officials who served in his household and administration. By equal measure state builder and political unifier as well as ruthless opportunist and bloody-handed aggressor, Alexander II has been praised or vilified by past historians but has rarely been viewed in the round.
Avg Rating
3.75
Number of Ratings
16
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
31%
3 STARS
19%
2 STARS
19%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Richard Oram
Richard Oram
Author · 4 books

Professor Richard D. Oram F.S.A. (Scot.) is a Scottish historian. He is a professor of medieval and environmental history at the University of Stirling and an honorary lecturer in history at the University of Aberdeen. He is also the director of the Centre for Environmental History and Policy at the University of Stirling. He received his undergraduate training at the University of St. Andrews, where he also carried out his doctoral research, on medieval Galloway. In 2000 he published The Lordship of Galloway (Birlinn). He has since written a biography of King David I of Scotland (Tempus, 2004), and the High Medieval volume, volume 3, in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland series, entitled Domination and Lordship: Scotland, 1070-1230 (2011).

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